I want to direct these next few words to some individuals who understand what it means to hear “Welcome home.”

We didn’t hear that greeting too often back in the day, when we were coming home from service during the Vietnam War. We hear it now and speaking only for myself, it rings sweetly in my ears.

Today happens to be National Vietnam War Veterans Day. It’s a day the nation set aside in 2012 to offer a word of thanks to those of us who answered the call to duty, did our job the best we could but then came home to a nation that was either indifferent to what we had experienced or damn angry at us for doing our duty.

I have many friends who served in Vietnam. Many of them saw horrendous combat. Some of my friends are scarred emotionally by what they experienced. One of them has written at least two memoirs about his time as a Marine over there, telling us about the pain of watching his buddies die in his arms.

I was fortunate in this regard: I was not a rifle-packing grunt while serving in the U.S. Army. I maintained and serviced fixed-wing aircraft and then worked as a flight operations specialist. No one hung the “baby killer!” tag on me when I returned home.

However, it took a number of years for many of our fellow Americans to realize how wrong they were to blame the soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines for the policies they were ordered to follow. We simply were doing what our nation called on us to do.

So … now we get a day when the nation offers its thanks. Of course, there won’t be any parades on this National Vietnam War Veterans Day. The health crisis/pandemic has taken care of that.

I will use this forum to offer a simple “Welcome home” to my brothers.